Home / Poker News May 2012 / Chris Christie’s Online Poker Commitment Questioned
Chris Christie’s Online Poker Commitment Questioned
Posted by: Jo Martin - Fri, 2012-05-11 03:53
Bad news for New Jersey-based online poker players who may have been looking forward to the online gambling/poker bill pushed by State Sen. Raymond Lesniak and supposedly supported by Gov. Chris Christie: politics may yet again be getting in the way of online poker achieving legalized and regulated status in yet another US jurisdiction. Raymond Lesniak came forth the other day, stating that Chris Christie’s support of the bill is ‘certainly wavering’ and that he and State Sen. Jim Whalen had been told by Christie’s staff that they were getting strong opposition to the proposed bill from high-up places and some extremely powerful interests.
According to Lesniak, the source of that opposition is pretty clear: Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands is one of the biggest republican donors, who has made his opposition to any sort of attempt to legalize and regulate
online poker and gambling quite clear in the past.
His name being floated as a potential running mate for Mitt Romney, Christie simply cannot afford to go against the tide in this matter, or so it seems. Even if he doesn’t get the VP position, he’s pretty much guaranteed to end up with some sort of position in the Romney administration should the republican candidate – unlikely as it is – win the November elections.
Romney, who is a Mormon, has spoken out against online gambling numerous times in the past, and should he win, the prospects of legal online poker and gambling in the US will definitely fade away quickly.
Christie has been sending mixed signals to supporters of online poker in the last few months. Although he had vetoed a previous initiative, he signaled in January that he had changed his stance on the matter, a move which encouraged Lesniak and his co-sponsors to submit the bill in an altered, amended form. With the presidential elections looming on the horizon though, it now once again seems like New Jersey’s plans for legal and regulated online poker will be put on hold indefinitely.
